there is no doubt that the bible is a mix of stories told over thousands of years by many people for various reasons historians look at these as evidence of what people believed at the time they were written there are methods to glean out what is real what is made up so its not a binary choice of useless or true just like today if you were to read the account if the last years by isis ideological fanatics youd likely get some history as well as some insane stories of divine intervention